Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which practices from the spiritual traditions—in our case, spiritual discernment—may offer opportunities for management innovation in non-religious organizations in designing collaborative and participative decision-making processes. We examine the case of a spiritual discernment practice associated with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in the UK—known as the Quaker Business Method (QBM)—to help illuminate the opportunities of spiritual discernment in private limited companies. Given that the majority of non-religious, trading organizations are structured as private limited companies, our paper addresses the extent to which QBM can be utilized by such entities. Thus, we bring religion and corporate law into conversation to address this under-explored terrain. We find that embedding many elements of Quaker spiritual discernment in private limited companies pose non-trivial challenges. However, many of these challenges can be overcome so long as those involved in managing and owning organizations actively engage with corporate law, and specifically consider the benefits of adopting bespoke articles of association or entering into a separate shareholder agreement to reflect the practice of spiritual discernment. We necessarily adopt a practice-orientated perspective, and conclude by proposing new pathways for future research.
Highlights
In the scholarship of law, decision-making is concerned with compliance and ‘good’ corporate governance, and decision-making is governed through statutes such as the Companies Act 2006.Case law will subsequently help to interpret the legislation, and policy guidance is given to certain corporations on what they must do to comply with the rules on corporate governance
Highlight the key characteristics of Quaker Business Method (QBM): a process framed in silence, spoken contributions are presented as vocal ‘ministry’ to the meeting, rather than as advocacy3, an absence of votes4 ; and contemporaneous minutes are proposed5 and agreed that reflects the shared spiritual discernment of the meeting6
Given that the model articles appear to permit board meetings being framed by silence, this would suggest that no changes are required to the model articles to practice this characteristic of QBM
Summary
In the scholarship of law, decision-making is concerned with compliance and ‘good’ corporate governance, and decision-making is governed through statutes such as the Companies Act 2006. Muers and Burton (2018) highlight examples of non-religious, non-Quaker, for-profit and non-profit organizations who continue to shape their decision-making processes consistent with the Quaker approach. Despite these contributions, embedding spiritual discernment as a decision-making approach in non-religious organizations presents non-trivial challenges and provides a direct challenge to Pollard’s view that ‘it can be used in other bodies’. For these non-trivial challenges to be over-come, we argue, organizations need to actively engage with corporate law.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
